Monthly Archives: November 2017

Much to be thankful for. Healthy family, generally speaking. Great wife and kids. Employed. Still married after twenty pretty good years. Latest book published with good reviews. Hillary is still not president. Car is still running. Weather is not bad. Roof’s been reshingled. Hollywood is imploding, and it looks like congress might be next.

So, overall, life’s not bad. Oh, sure, there are things I could complain about, but they are pretty small potatoes in the historical big picture.

Peaked at #2 in the Literature & Fiction > Religious & Inspirational Fiction > Inspirational genre, now fallen back to #9. You can use Sales Rank to track it if you so desire. Just use the book’s ASIN of B077CVXWVP and it pops right up. I expect it to move around a bit.
(RATS! missed a #1 bestseller in category by ->||<- this much!)

Currently at 15 reviews: ten 5-star, four 4-star, one 3-star. Not bad for a first attempt in the genre, one dominated by chick-flick books and romances dressed up with religious draping. Comparing the covers on the top 20 in that field to HoSP is… interesting.

The bulk of the reviews are pretty meaty – they have particular things they do and don’t like about it. No major faux pas noted yet. Not a bad first 3/7th of a week.

I sort of see what the 3-star review’s point is, but it looks like she just doesn’t “get it.” Which is OK – not everyone will. But maybe, given time, reflection, perhaps a conversation with a man who “gets it” because it’s a book written for and about men, will turn the light on.

My newest book is now officially hot off the Castalia House press… er, electronically speaking, anyhow.

Heretics of St. Possenti is the story of the founding of the monastic order of St. Possenti, the “Gun Saint”, by Bishop Thomas Cranberry. The order was originally introduced in TSCB, and a few of my readers were very curious how it came into existence. So, after some research and writing, and a bit of re-writing, and some feedback from people more knowledgeable than I about certain aspects of Catholicism, monks, etc., and who knows how much editorial work by the good people of the internationally-acclaimed publisher Castalia House, it’s finally ready. Available at Amazon, of course.

A brief bit of universe background –The Stars Came Back takes place circa 2650 AD. Heretics takes place in the unspecified but not too distant future – before 2050, in any case, likely around 2040 for my mental reasoning. Far enough out that things are different, near enough that far too many things are still the same, and linear extrapolation isn’t unreasonable. The US hasn’t blown up yet, we’re still getting involved in overseas military adventurism, SJWs still infest HR, Christian religious faith is largely mocked in pop culture, etc. In this environment, Thomas Cranberry has a few unexpected events that cascade together and inspire him to see an entirely different approach to outreach, to meet a badly under-served group, one that most kick while they are down.

It is a didactic book rather than action / adventure, and quite unlike the space-opera that is TSCB. However, I hope it is also a worthwhile read.

The cover is totally different than I expected, but it’s classic in-genre.
Larger image of the cover:

It’s that time – the day we commemorate Veteran’s Day. A somber day, not exactly a “Happy Holiday!” with a cheery smile sort of occasion. This year, appropriately enough, the observance day is also the birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps (U.S.M.C.). Happy birthday, Marines!The US military has been going through a rough patch in the last few decades, with more enemies domestic and internal (especially the most recent former C-in-C, whose policies were extremely destructive to the professionalism and moral of the uniformed forces, from what I’ve heard) than external… those the external threats, from ISIS to RocketMan are not inconsiderable.

I’m a veteran of sorts – served an uneventful (in terms of actual hot-war deployment) enlistment in the US Army Reserve. It’s enough that on some job applications I can check the “veteran” status box, but on others that list specific types of veterans (Vietnam War Era veteran, Service Medal Veteran, etc.) I cannot, because I don’t qualify as any of those specific types. Just a generic “signed up, served, went home, carry on” sort of thing.

I honor those who served, whether draftees like my dad, or volunteers like myself, friends who or family who served in war and came home like Joe Huffman’s son-in-law, or those who served and didn’t, like Adam Plumondore.

So bow your head briefly, raise a glass, or whatever, and thank those who served to protect your right to politely disagree with your fellow American, and helped to create the greatest country this planet has ever seen, flawed, decadent, and in decline though it may be.

He tumbled into the bed and fell asleep in seconds, to be awoken hours later by a very surprised knight with an even more surprised wench, who was quickly shooed away with a coin for her time, her discomfiture, and her silence. Continue reading Thune Runner XVIII→

Two days after they’d taken to Cake Rock, the victim being slowly and painfully executed was the messenger they’d sent to call for a relief force. He’d been brought in with a returning force of Thune who brought the surrounding army to an estimated eleven hundred warriors. The mood of the Argentain camp turned black. The weather was dark and dreary, the occasional arrow lofted randomly by a passing rider kept them under cover, and screams of their dying comrades slowly surrendering their life force to the fiendish devices of their tormentors kept everyone on edge. Continue reading Thune Runner XVII→

The attempt to slip out silently was not anything like quiet to Jispin’s ears. He said as much, and as much as it pained the optio to agree with him, there wasn’t any point in leaving behind men to make the camp look occupied. They just packed up as fast as they could, linked up horses into strings, and made as much speed as they could by torchlight. Continue reading Thune Runner XVI→

The Thune raiders had been crushed. Some had escaped, fewer than one in ten the centurions guessed, but many of those were injured and would die slowly from their injuries in the coming days. The encampment was also thoroughly destroyed – more dead family there than warriors. On that account, the Argentain cohort’s mission was a resounding success. Continue reading Thune Runner XV→

It was full daylight before they heard the first hoofbeats of a rider. Everyone was called to silence. A pair, then a second pair, of riders galloped into view, Thune in dress and riding their ponies hard. Jispin smiled. “I hope they can see the path,” he said to Centurion Vergilius Gaius. Continue reading Thune Runner XIV→